Radio Boys Cronies eBook

Thad, astonished at Bill’s sudden mirth, held
the crutch mid-air, and demanded with a malignant
leer:

“Huh! Laugh, will you?”

“Go ahead and break it, but it won’t be
a circumstance to what I’ll do to you.
I can imagine your uncle—­”

“So? Listen, you pusillanimous, knock-kneed
shrimp? I’m going to mash your jaw so you’ll
never wag it again! And right now, too, you—­”

Possibly there was as much determination back of this
as any evil intent, but it also was doomed to failure.
There was a quick step from the deeper shadows and
a figure loomed suddenly in front of Thad who, with
uplifted crutch, was still glaring at Bill. Only
two words were spoken, a “You, huh?”
from the larger chap; then a quick tackle, a short
straining scuffle, and Thad was thrown so violently
sidewise and hurtled against the bench from which
Bill had just risen, that it and Thad went over on
the ground together. The bench and the lad seemed
to lie there equally helpless. Gus picked up
the crutch and handed it to his chum.

“Let’s go. He won’t be able
to get up till we’ve gone.”

But as they passed out from among the shadows there
followed them a threat which seemed to be bursting
with the hatred of a demon:

“Oh, I’ll get even with you two little
devils. I’ll blow you to—­”

The two boys looked at each other and only laughed.

“Notice his right eye when you see him again,”
chuckled Bill.

CHAPTER XVII

THE UNEXPECTED

“Where did you come from, Gus?” Bill asked,
still inclined to laugh.

“The road. Slipped away from the others
for I was wondering whether you might not get into
trouble. Couldn’t imagine that chump would
spring anything that wouldn’t make you mad,
and I knew you’d talk back. So I did the
gumshoe.”

“Well, I suppose he would have made it quite
interesting for me and I am eternally grateful to
you. If it weren’t for you, Gus, I guess,
I’d have a hard time in—­”

“By cracky, if it weren’t for you, old
scout, where would I be? Nowhere, or anywhere,
but never somewhere.”

“No; but wouldn’t I like to? It’s
a rotten shame to have that lowdown scamp under Mr.
Hooper’s roof. It’s a wonder Grace
doesn’t give him away; she must know what a
piker he is.”

“Bill, it’s really none of our business,”
Gus said. “Well, see you in the morning
early.”

The boys wished once more to go over carefully all
the completed details of the water power plant; they
had left the Pelton wheel flying around with that
hissing blow of the water on the paddles and the splashing
which made Bill think of a circular log saw in buckwheat-cake
batter. The generator, when thrown in gear, had
been running as smoothly as a spinning top; there
were no leaks in the pipe or the dam. But now
they found water trickling from a joint that showed
the crushing marks of a sledge, the end of the nozzle
smashed so that only enough of the stream struck the
wheel to turn it, and there was evidence of sand in
the generator bearings.